Paranoid
by Angelwing-chan
Summary: As the Chunnin Exams comence, Orochimaru has his sights set on more than one of its participants. But how have they met in the past? What can this mean?
1. Chapter 1

Paranoid

Chapter 1

**Rating**: T

**Summary**: As the Chunnin exams bring tough competition, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura discover a mysterious Konoha team that may hold many untouched secrets.

A/N: I've been wanting to post a fan fiction for a while now, and most of this story is already planned out .The only reason for long delays would be my lack of time to upload, so please don't kill me.

Please review and enjoy!!!

"Let me go!" Konohamoru screamed as he struggled to get free of the shinobi's grip. The ninja smirked seeing the panic on the child's face.

"Put him down!" Naruto cried as he arrived at the scene.

"I hate little brats like you." The shinobi said as he tightened his grip. "And do you know what I do to brats?" Sakura gasped as a pebble struck the ninja's wrist causing him to drop the young academy student.

"Judging from you headband you must be from Suna." An extremely familiar voice stated.

Naruto, Sakura, and the sand nin peered into the trees to find Sasuke sitting on one of the lower branches. "What is your purpose here?" Sasuke asked.

'_Show off, he always has to look so cool.'_ Naruto thought as glanced at Sakura, who was admiring the raven-haired shinobi.

Suddenly, a blonde kinoichi walked up from behind the angered ninja holding an ID. "We have come from Suna for the up coming Chunnin Exams." She informed them.

"Stay out of this Temari." The sand nin commanded.

"You're a disgrace to our village, Kankuro." The leaf genins' blood seemed to run cold at the chilled tone of the voice.

It had come from a short, red head ninja had appeared on the branch above Sasuke.

"H...hey Gaara." Kankuro stuttered.

Everyone and every thing had stopped until the silence was broken by a soft giggle that surprised even Gaara.

Naruto began to glance all around him, searching for the source of the noise until a stream of color caught his eye.

As it continued to flow out of a high branch it formed the shape of a young girl with short black hair in a low ponytail and bright violet eyes wearing a black sleeveless shirt, kaki pants, and ninja sandals.

"Who the hell are you?!" Naruto roared, tried of the sudden appearances.

"I'm sorry," the kinoichi stated, "It's just so amusing watching you being intimidated by every ninja that crosses your path."

'_She's prettier than Sakura, but way more annoying.'_ Naruto thought as the black-haired ninja landed in front of them and helped Konahamoru up.

As Sasuke was watching her he noticed a headband on her arm _'Her_ _headband holds the symbol of the leaf,'_ the Uchiha prodigy analyzed, _'She seems to be_ _our age but I've never seen her before_.'

"I'm tired of this!" Kankuro announced pulling a huge bundle off his back.

"You're going to use the crow!" Temari questioned him.

Suddenly, as if her entire personality changed, the young leaf kinoichi released a small but powerful wave of charka and shot him a death glare that seemed to be burning holes straight though his soul. "Save it for the Chunnin Exams where at lease it's someone's job to clean up the mess your bloody corpse will leave behind." The kinoichi informed him.

The sand nin backed away, his eyes full of fear.

Gaara appeared in front of his two teammates a few seconds later. "I am Sukonu no Gaara, and you two are?" he asked.

"Uchiha Sasuke." The shinobi answered as he landed in front of Sakura who once again began to admire him.

As the girl was about to answer a strong wind began to blow and calmed as a tall figure appeared on the fence that border the alley. He had spiky silver hair, dark eyes, wearing black ninja pants, a black sleeveless shirt with a collar that covered most of his face, and a 6-foot long buster blade with a chain coming out of the end of the handle wrapped across his chest and curled around the belly of the sword on his back

"Who is it now?" Naruto grumbled.

"Temika, sensei's in a bitchy mood again. She wants to talk to you." The ninja said.

"Can't Kiaro handle it?" she asked.

"He has already tried, but you can only imagine how that worked out."

"Fine," Temika grumbled, "see guys at the Chunnin Exams."

With that she and the older boy disappeared without a trace.

As the sand nins began to walk away, Naruto blurted out, "I bet you wanna know my name too."

"I couldn't care less." Gaara said in reply. Then again began to walk away with Temari and Kankuro by his side.

"**Kit, there was something strange about those two, especially that girl."** The kyuubi stated in an awkward tone.

"_That other guy,"_ Sasuke thought, _"his chakra was so powerful the air around him was_ _dense with it"_

"Who were those people you were with?" the shinobi asked

"Their names were Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura of the leaf, and Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro of the sand." Temika informed him.

" So the Junchuuriki of the sand is here, huh."

"That boy Sasuke is of the Uchiha clan." She added. A short silence drifted over them.

"I see…" he said in a stiff tone.

"I also felt the presence of the Kyuubi, within the one called Naruto."

"Another one, well this might get interesting, huh nee-chan."

A/N: I decided not to leave you on a huge cliffhanger. This is my first story so please review if you can.

2ndA/N:For those of u that are reading this first chapter may sound cheesy but bear with us it will get better I promise!!! Lcd…


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you if you stayed with us after that cheesy first chapter! It gets better I promise.

"Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke said as grabbed a paper that contained information on the Chunnin Exams.

"Yes?"

"Have you heard of a female genin named Temika?" he asked. The rest of his team drew closer, he had gained their attention.

Kakashi cupped his chin as if to be searching for the answer, "Did she have an older boy with her?"

"Yes." Team 7 answered in unison, their eyes widening in anticipation.

"Their team is made up of Ryokia, Kiaro, and Temika." The jounin stated in his usual lazy tone, "They're special genin team that travels around the Fire Country."

It was good information, but left another question lingering in Sasuke's mind. "Why don't they reside in the village?"

Kakashi gaze hardened, he seemed more serious, "That, I can't tell you, but if you end up in a situation where you are forced to fight them……surrender."

A silence incased them, a few seconds later it was broken by Naruto. "What! Why?!"

"The result, I'd rather not mention." And with that their sensei disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sasuke began to walk away, annoyed that he couldn't get all the answers out of Kakashi, not that he thought he could.

"_He's been even quieter then usual since he met that girl." _Sakura thought watching him walk away.

"**She better not be trying to steal my Sasuke!!!"** Inner Sakura screamed.

"_I asked Kakashi and I've looked through every file in every public library in Konoha and I haven't found a scrap of information on these shinobi." _Sasuke thought as he continued to wonder why the information on this genin was so hard to find. As he looked further down the street he stopped at the sight he saw before him _"This is my chance."_

What he had seen was Temika walking into the ramen stand, alone.

Sasuke quickly hid himself as best he could, suppressing his chakra so he wouldn't be noticed.

"I like to order two large miso ramens, a barbeque pork ramen, and one plain ramen to go please." Temika told the cashier.

Naruto was stuffing his face as usual when he heard the familiar voice. "Rour wrat gwirl rom reswerday." He managed to say, his mouth overflowing with ramen.

"Oh, hi Naruto-kun." She said energetically, and then she realized what she had said. In one quick fluid motion put the money on the counter, grabbed her order, and flew out of the shop leaving Naruto wondering how she knew his name.

Sasuke was surprised at how swiftly Temika exited the shop, but she slowed down after a few minutes.

Fifteen minutes later she seemed to have reached her destination. Sasuke was being careful so not to be noticed as he followed her into an apartment building.

Suddenly, on her way up the steps, the kinoichi changed her speed making her a blur that Sasuke could barely see.

He ran up the steps, hoping to keep up with her, but as he turned to the hallway he ran into something rock hard.

"Temika, you have a stalker." The tall figure stated picking Sasuke up by the collar.

Sasuke recognized him as the ninja from the day before.

"Kia-chan, he's one of those guys from the other day." Temika explained with an innocent tone that made anyone believe she meant no harm.

"_Kia-chan." _Sasuke thought with a smirk. He peered behind the shinobi to see Temika and another boy with dark brown that was spiky in the front but smooth in the back with hazel eyes wearing dark green ninja pants and a black t-shirt with the a unknown symbol on each sleeve. He also had a tattoo of a dragon spiraling up his left arm. The young ninja was looking in the take out bag with interest.

"Who are you and what are you doing following Temika?!" he ordered.

"Kia-chan, his name is Uchiha Sasuke and he means us no harm. Let him go and I will talk to him." Temika said in a more serious tone. The look in her eyes was demanding.

"Fine. Come on Kiaro." Ryokia said defeated.

"You're lucky Temika-chan came to your aid." Kiaro told him, "Otherwise you would have been screwed." They began to walk down the hall, leaving Temika behind.

"Come on." At that she grabbed his wrist and he followed her outside.

"Sorry about Kia-chan, he's a little overprotective." Temika informed him as they made their way down the alley. "You came for information didn't you?"

"Yeah." Said Sasuke, _"She's got a split personality. Yesterday she went from little miss sunshine to badass and now she's back." _

"Well you can't get any from us." She explained.

This made Sasuke extremely frustrated. "Why not?"

"Because there's another source," Temika answered, she had stopped and lowered her voice.

Sasuke came to a halt behind her, listening carefully.

"In the Hokage's private study, there is a row of filing cabinets that contains files that have been classified for the Hokage's use," she explained walking away, "in it are my team's files."

A knot formed in Sasuke's throat, _"How the hell am I going to get in there?" _he thought.

"Don't worry," Temika said as if reading his mind, "the security is light tonight I'm confident you can get in." She turned around and smiled, "Oh, and I, Sukaru Temika, give you permission to read this information as long as you give me your word that you will share it with no one."

"Hai." Sasuke murmured, his confusion showed in his voice.

In the blink of an eye she was gone, leaving Sasuke dumbfounded.

"_Why would I need her permission?"_

The full moon shone brightly in the clear night sky, it lit a hall way were two Anbu guards stood keeping their guard up, for most of the guard was on an A-rank mission chasing after a missing nin.

Meanwhile, the same moon was lighting the very same room they were guarding, where a certain prodigy was picking the lock on a drawer marked: _Forbidden._

"_Damn, how did she know there were only two guards on watch tonight?" _Sasuke ranted to himself as the lock clicked, he slowly opened the drawer, careful not to make a sound.

Inside were multiple folders that were at least twice as thick as most of the files he had already searched. He shuffled through the names until he came across one that was familiar: Sukaru Temika.

As he pulled out the file he noticed a nearly invisible wire attached to the bottom. Careful not to pull it tight, he pulled out a kunai a cut it, but at that moment the drawer slammed shut. _"Oh, shit."_ Sasuke thought as he ran towards the window _"Now I can't get the rest of the files." _

As the Uchiha closed the window and vanished the Anbu entered the room with kunai in hand, _"Everything appears to be normal." _

Sasuke entered his room holding the file under his arm. He quickly locked the door and ran over to his bed lighting the candle that sat next to it. Slowly, he opened the folder and read the first page.

_Name: Sukaru TemikaAge: 11Rank: Genin_

_Gender: Female_

_Teammates: Sukaru Ryokia, Zoshimu KiaroSensei: Giemora Yoshimia_

_Status: Tiajutsu 43/100 _(low Chunnin level)_Ninjutsu 51/100 _(Chunnin level)

_Genjutsu 75/100 _(Jounin level)_Intelligence 95/100Bloodline ?_

As Sasuke read the last paragraph his eyes went wide.

_Original jutsu: Fainaru Sabaki _(Final Judgment)_; An extremely powerful genjutsu deemed forbidden by the Hokage shortly after its creation. Effects of this jutsu are unknown, for no one has lived through it._

"_What happened to this girl's mind for her to make such a thing?"_

Suddenly, as Sasuke turned the page, his whole world went black.

A/N: Please, don't kill me. I had to leave you on a cliffhanger so I might have at least one reader. Now all I ask for is one review. PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2ndA/N:I'm not surprised that we didn't get a review for the first chapter but don't be afraid to leave a review so I know someone is reading this. LCD.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry it took so long. Well here's chapter 3.

A2/N: Please leave reviews so I know I am not just wasting my life typing an unread fan fiction…

"_Shit, I stayed up all night searching that damn file and all I found were mission reports and academy papers."_ Sasuke thought as he stomped toward the academy building where they were holding the first stage of the Chunnin Exams.

_Flashback_

_As Sasuke turned the page his whole world went black, until familiar scenery began to envelope him. _

"_Oh, and I Sukaru Temika, give you permission to read this information as long as you give me your word that you will share it with no one." She stated._

_Sasuke looked on confused as he heard himself say "Hai."_

_As she began to walk away the environment dissipated until it was warped back into his room. "Must have been a genjutsu to keep anyone that wasn't welcome out," Sasuke thought, "That is why she gave me permission."_

_When he looked down at the folder he notice that the page he had turned to was blank. He turned the page again only to find out that it was blank too. As Sasuke flipped through the file he became more and more frustrated as he turned each page just to find out they were blank. "What the fuck." He began to shuffle through the papers until he found some that were marked. He read them until he found out that they were only mission reports. Anyone could have told you that at this point, Sasuke was pissed. Suddenly he remembered something. "Wait, she knew that they were short on guards. She could've come in and taken the information that she didn't what me to read."_

"I'm gonna beat the crap out of her for that." Sasuke mumbled as they walked upstairs.

"Sasuke, you look tired, did something keep you up?" Sakura asked trying to get a word out of her long-time crush. He just scoffed and continued walking.

"I hope your lack of sleep doesn't cost us." Naruto stated, trying to get him angry. Sasuke ignored him as they approached a group of gennin trying to get past a few ninja that were guarding a door marked 301.

As he reached them he noticed Temika and her team snuck past the crowd and head up stairs. "Then it must be a genjutsu." Sasuke thought, choosing this time to show off. "Why don't you drop the genjutsu, we can all see through it." Sasuke boasted as Team 7 came to a halt.

"So you saw through it," the chunnin said as he dropped the genjutsu, "but that doesn't mean anything." The ninja attacked Sasuke with a kick and Sasuke returned with one of his own, when a flash of green appeared between them blocking both.

"Lee, we told you not to show off." Said a girl with brown hair pulled up in buns. Behind her was a white-eyed boy with an annoyed look on his face.

"What you readin'?" Kiaro asked as he peered over Temika's shoulder trying to catch a glance of the book she was reading. As he did so she moved the book out of his gaze, "None of your business."

"C'mon."

"No!"

As Kiaro began an attempt to snatch the book Temika put her hand in his face keeping him at arms length. "C'mon, please!" Kiaro exclaimed trying playfully to reach the book.

"Shut up Kiaro, your drawing attention to us," Stated the half-asleep form of Ryokia. Kiaro glanced around the exam room only to find out that half the shinobi were staring at them.

Suddenly, the doors opened and Temika closed her book to see Team 7 enter the room. _"I wonder how Sasuke will react."_ She smiled as Sasuke shot her an angry glare.

The rookie gennin began to meet up when Naruto, out of the blue, shouted at the top of his lungs, "MY NAME IS UZAMAKI NARUTO, AND I'M GONNA' BEAT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!!!!"

"_That wasn't necessary.",_ _"That kid is dead for sure.", "Those who boast die first."_ The members of team 13 thought amongst themselves. (That's Temika's, Kiaro's, and Ryokia's team…STAY FOCUSED!!!)

Moments later, a silver haired Konoha nin approached them. "You rookies need to be quiet." He stated. They began to talk as the other rookie teams joined in. He pulled out a set of cards, "I can give you information on any ninja in the exam."

This gained Sasuke's attention, "Sukonu no Gaara."

The shinobi raised his eyebrows and drew a card, "Ah, this is his first time in the exam as well. According to this he's from Suna and has been on 17 D-rank missions, 15 C-rank, and what's this, a B-rank." He informed them.

The rookies looked interested, but Sasuke was for a different reason.

"_If he has information on foreign nins then he might have something on them."_ Sasuke thought. "Do you have anything on Sukaru Temika, Sukaru Ryokia, and Zoshimu Kiaro?" the other members of Team 7 glanced at him, not knowing all these names.

"_I know about Temika, but what about her teammates?"_ Sakura thought looking confused.

"**How does she gets his attention!?" **Inner Sakura yelled grasping her head in frustration.

"Curious aren't we. I just recently got these." He stated pulling out three cards and showing them. "According to these, they are a special team that travels around the Fire Country intercepting missions. Their mission record is 20 D-ranks, 13 C-ranks, and what do you know 2 B-ranks and an A-rank." This gained all of the rookie's attention.

"Do you know why they travel so much?" Sasuke asked, internally begging for an answer.

"All I know is that Kiaro's father is the Kage of another village and was sent here as part of a partnership. He joined Ryokia and Temika when they became genin. It seems that those two were taught separately after their first term in the academy and most likely they were taken together because they're siblings." He explained with a scowl, putting the cards away.

"Thanks." Sasuke said heading to the front of the room.

"_I don't like the smell coming off that guy,"_ Temika thought opening her book and wrinkling her nose as Sasuke approached, _"There's too much blood."_ She turned her attention back to her aggravating teammate.

Kiaro was irritating Temika when Sasuke approached. "I need to talk to you." Sasuke said reaching toward Ryokia's shoulder. Suddenly, Ryokia grabbed Sasuke's wrist and flung him over his seat, putting him flat on his face on the table in-between him and Temika.

"Kia-chan, that's the third time you did that today." Temika said posing as innocent again.

"It's a reflex." Ryokia said, not showing any sorrow toward Sasuke. The whole time, Kiaro was simply laughing his ass off.

With no warning, Temika leaned over and grabbed her ears in pain. Immediately after that, the sound of breaking glass and vomiting could be heard.

"That will teach you not to talk down on the Sound Village." An Oto nin announced to the silver-haired shinobi.

"There is no fighting unless it is allowed by the examiner." The source of the command made its self known, as a man in a black trench coat entered the room followed by a large group of chunnin.

Fifteen minutes later everyone was in their seats and listening to the rules of the first exam.

"Rule number 1: You will lose at least one point to pass the test, for each of the ten questions you answer incorrectly you will loose one point. Rule number two: If one of your teammates fails, your whole team fails." The cloaked proctor informed them.

Sasuke and Sakura weren't the only ones glaring down their teammate; Kiaro could feel holes being burnt in the back of his head by Ryokia. Lucky for him, Temika was in the front row on the left side meaning she couldn't do the same, though he knew he would get a severe beating if he caused them to fail.

"And rule number three," the jounin continued, "There will be absolutely no cheating. We have placed the ninja with the sharpest eyes around the room to prevent this. Every time you are caught cheating, two points will be removed from your score and if you are caught five times you will fail and be asked to leave. When there are fifteen minutes left in the hour time limit I will give you the tenth and final question."

"_A little bit over board with the cheating thing especially since he has a clear shot to see everything, so I guess that is the point of 1st exam." _Temika thought, her ear was still ringing from the Oto nins attack.

"The test begins…… now!" Ibiki announced. The rapid sound of papers flipping could be heard through the third story as the candidates read the first question.

"_What is the total amount of targets a single kunai can hit while thrown at sixty-four degree angle when over a small lake… Who can answer these?" _Sasuke thought as he skimmed through the test. He glanced down at Temika, who was scribbling down something that he could only guess was the answer _"I guess she can. Maybe the point is to cheat; he did put an emphasis on that." _Sasuke immediately activated his Sharingan.

Again he looked at the younger kinouchi, only this time he noticed something. There was dried blood in her ear, _"Could that be from the Oto's attack?"_

"_That's easy,"_ Temika ranted in her head, _"It depends on the skill of the thrower, the wind speed, the exact landscape, the number of targets, and the position the targets are in..."_ she thought as she wrote all the possible situations for the first question.

Both Kiaro and Naruto were panicking about how hard the questions were. _"What am I going to do!?" _

"_Looks like they're starting to catch on,"_ Ibiki thought as his gaze shifted through out the room.

Meanwhile, Ryokia was reading at his seat when he felt something soft rub across his leg.

He peered underneath his desk to find a small black cat with a white ear, carrying two hearing devises in its mouth. _"Nice plan nee-chan, sending Cici to give us these ear phones while you tell us the answers."_ He thought as he removed one of the devices, leaned his head on his fist, and slipped it in his ear.

Once Kiaro put his earpiece in, tears of relief began to roll down his cheeks, _"Thank you Temika-chan!" _to most it seemed like he was upset that he couldn't answer the questions.

Meanwhile, the youngest of Team 13 was doing a long series of hand signs. _"Hiaringu Karento no Jutsu."_ Suddenly, a cloud of invisible chakra formed around her body stopping any sounds from escaping her.

"_Perfect,"_ Temika thought placing an unbelievably small microphone on her pencils eraser. _"This should work if Kiaro would stop the waterworks."_

The cat that had given them the earphones leaped into her lap and curled into a ball, drifting into its slumber. _"You're worth the trouble you cause, Cici-chan."_

"Ok, time for the tenth question." Ibiki stated after glancing at the clock. "But before I get to that there are some more rules."

"Oh, come on, more rules!" Kiba exclaimed, as various groans could be heard around the room.

At that moment, Kankuro reentered the room, being led by a Chunin.

"So nice of you to join us, your right on time for the tenth question." He addressed as the sand nin passed Temari's desk.

Immediately after Kankuro reached his seat, the proctor once again faced the genin. "You have the choice of taking this question or not."

"Of course we will!" Kiba shouted once again.

"I wasn't finished explaining." The cloaked proctor informed them, giving Kiba a stern look. "If you answer this question incorrectly, you fail and," He gave a short pause, "You are barred from ever taking the Chunnin Exams again."

There were various objections heard though out the room.

"But lots of genin have taken this exam before failed, and were able to retake it!" Temari objected.

"It's just bad luck that you got me as a proctor this year." He stated with a smirk.

At that moment you could have heard a pin drop, if Kiaro hadn't have been fidgeting in his chair, much to his team's annoyance.

"Now, anyone who wishes to quit, please raise your hand and we will record your number. Then you may leave."

After a long silence, the first hands were raised. Soon after more than half the teams they started with had left the room.

And out of nowhere came a loud, obnoxious voice, "This is bullshit!!!" Naruto yelled as he slammed his hand on the desk. "I'll never give up even if it means I'll be a genin for the rest of my life. If that happens, I'll be the first genin Hokage!" he ranted gaining everyone's attention.

"_Isn't that admirable," _Temika thought as her eye twitched from the pain in her ear.

"_He's got more balls than most people." _Ryokia smirked.

"_Looks like he's given the others some backbone," _Ibiki thought. No one else had raised their hand. "Alright, if no one else is leaving ……….. Congratulations, you all pass the First Exam.

A/N: I'm so sorry for the long delay (if anyone is reading this). I'll try to get the next chapter up faster.

As for my OCs, Kiaro is well respected by the villagers if you were wandering. Ryokia doesn't really get excited about anything unless it includes competition, fighting, or getting stronger (though later he starts getting complicated). Temika has a playful attitude as you know and likes to mess with people, but is also understanding and in some ways similar to Naruto in nature. Just to let you now, Kiaro as you can tell is as dumb as a stump, and Temika and Ryokia (especially Temika) are scary as hell when they are mad.

2nd A/N: This next chapter is where it gets goooooooooooooooooooood…LCD


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Now it gets good.

I know you've been wandering why I've had second author's note. He helps me with Ryokia's commentary as well as with proof reading, but he is the action writer in this story since I suck at it.

This will be my special Halloween/Thanksgiving chapter, too late for Halloween and too early for Thanksgiving. It will be the longest chapter I've ever written.

2nd A/N: Finally my time to shine… this is where it starts to kick ass. LCD

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"HUH!!!" Naruto and Kiaro said in unison.

"Chunnin are forced to make life and death decisions everyday, and they often affect the outcome of the mission they're leading. In this type of situation, you could choose to save your own neck by giving up on your teammates. I would never let anyone that would do that become a chunnin." Ibiki explained widening his smile even further.

"Then the first questions were all for nothing?" Temari wandered out loud.

"They were used to test your ability to gather accurate information." The proctor answered, "Of course you wouldn't be able to cheat if you didn't have anyone to cheat off of. That's why I placed two chunnin in the test." Two Chunnin stood as he continued, "Sometimes you must be prepared to risk your life in order to gather information, which could determine whether your mission is a success or a failure."

Before anyone could ask anymore questions, Akamaru began to growl and bark angrily in the direction of Temika's seat. "What is it Akamaru?" Kiba asked curiously, confused at his dog behavior.

"Oh no!" Temika thought, looking at the sleeping cat in her lap, "Akamaru caught Cici's scent."

The nin-dog had left its master and was about to reach her seat when a sharp hissing noise and a flash of black revealed the now awake and vicious form of a blue eyed, black and white cat.

"Akamaru!" Kiba shouted as he ran toward is whimpering, bloody nosed dog. "What the hell did that thing do to him?"

"Your dog got its ass kicked by a cat!!!" Kiaro managed to get out while laughing so hard that tear began to roll down his cheeks.

Several genin around the room started to snicker at this comment, but Temika kept a straight face as a window shattered as a figure flew through it, throwing a few kunai to the ceiling to pin up a cloth that read 'Mitorashi Anko, Second Exam Proctor'.

"All right maggots, I'm the proctor of the Second Exam, Mitorashi Anko!" Shouted a young woman who was purple eyes and hair and was wearing nothing but a thin layer of fish net, a mini skirt that could have been a belt, and a large trench coat that covered the undesirable.

"Your timing is off yet again Anko." Ibiki informed her from behind the banner.

"You're loosing your touch Ibiki." She said as she examined the remaining Chunnin hopefuls. Her gaze stopped on the obviously bored Ryokia, shifted to a still laughing his ass off Kiaro, and finally to Temika, who was trying to calm Cici down. Anko smirked, _"Never thought that the council would let them enter this early."_

"We have a good crop this year." He replied, peering around the sign.

"Ok midgets, meet me first thing tomorrow at training area 44!" Anko yelled. "You're dismissed." Ibiki added as he walked around the obstacle Anko had placed in his way.

When most of the genin had left the room, Temika was about to leave with her team when some one called after her. "Temika we need to talk to you." She turned around to see Ibiki looking at her, he was worried. She looked at her team and they nodded. "Hai Ibiki-sensei."

Sasuke had overheard them while he was leaving the room. _"How many questions are there still left to answer about her."_

"Sorry I didn't come earlier." Temika said as she placed a bundle of flowers on two separate graves. One was titled 'Sukaru Kiskia' and the other 'Uco Rusime'. "Kia-chan won't come."

As she continued to talk to the deceased, she failed to notice another shinobi enter the cemetery.

"So, you've lost some one too?" Sasuke asked, as he approached her.

"Isn't that the only reason I'd be here Sasuke." Temika answered in an abnormally serious tone.

"Who did you loose?" Sasuke asked, ignoring her warning.

There was a long pause. Sasuke could tell that she wanted him to leave and that he may have brought back bad memories, but he wasn't going to leave. He had to know.

"My mother and father." She answered biting her lip. It pained her to admit it and her memories of that day flashed in her mind. As Ibiki had said, her mind was a bit unstable at certain moments.

"How?"

That was her breaking point. Sasuke was much too curious for his own good. The rose she was holding snapped, her hand bled from where the thorns had penetrated her skin. Her fists were tight and her teeth drew blood from her lip. Killing intent flooded the area. "That is something you don't need to know." Temika answered in a voice that chilled his blood.

He took a step back. "I've lost my entire family. As far as I see as long as we're human we will be held down through our bonds."

"That may be but only two of the three of us are human." Temika replied throwing a kunai into the closest tree. The response was a rustling sound and Naruto falling out of the tree.

Before Sasuke could ask another question she disappeared with the wind. (I know that I'm ruining the mood but just to answer your questions NO TEMIKA AND RYOKIA CANNOT JUST WALK OFF that would be too simple.)

A tall, dark figure with silver hair and tan skin stalked through the shadows cast by the surrounding trees that late afternoon, as he walked the atmosphere became littered with black dots and the air heaved down as if evening was trying to overtake the day.

When he reached the clearing it was so dark that the spots where sunlight came through looked like stars in the night sky. There, were the burnt ruins of a once prosperous outpost town from where the ashes from the decade ago still hung.

The figure continued through the debris at a slower pace it seems out of respect, he stopped when he came to an old house at the edge of the village. It was worn and overgrown with thick vines that had broken through various boards of its now brittle extirere.

But out of all things in that area one thing stood out. Blood. It stained the windows, door, even the ground a fig the earth was to never forget what had happened that day. All of it sat where it had first been shed. In front of the bloodstained entrance sat a bouquet of withering, day-old, white roses.

"I guess Nee-chan sent Cici here yesterday." Ryokia thought as he stepped over them into the door, which was hanging on its hinges.

The rooms inside had been torn apart by whatever had forced its way through. The man followed the aged path of destruction though the back room were a crib sat, marked with scarlet blood on the corner. In the middle of the room was a low spot where water had gathered mixed with the crimson liquid this place seemed to know so well. He walked on top of the water as if it where solid to the center of the swirling red. He sat down in top of the mixture still being held up so that he wouldn't disturb it.

Sitting there meditating for which was hours to the world was only minutes to him when he heard soft footsteps coming from the hall. Opening one eye and looking towards the door he saw Cici, the cat gave him a look that seemed to tell him that it was time to go.

He stood up and followed the feline out of the ruins until the ashes no longer hung in the air. Noticing that it was twilight he was about to walk on further when he noticed a young, raven-haired girl leaning against the base of a tree.

"Will you ever go back there?" Ryokia asked looking straight in front of him.

"Maybe in the next life. Come on, Yoshimia-sensei is waiting." Temika told him as they vanished in a swirl of leaves. (Like I said.)

"This is training area 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death. In the center if the forest is a tower which is your destination." Anko explained to the genin who now stood before her. "In this portion of the exam, you will not be allowed to quit. You have a five day time limit to reach the tower, but you can't pass the exam unless you have also collected both of these." She held up two scrolls, one with the kanji for heaven, the other for earth, "Each team will be given one of these scrolls. Your objective is to get the other one of these scrolls from another team. You will not be aloud to open the scroll, anyone who does will have a little surprise in store for them."

During the entire explanation of the Second Exam, Sasuke was barely paying attention. He was busy staring at a certain kinoichi who had brought up a lot of questions.

"_How the hell can someone have such a split personality? She could have made a jonin piss himself with that killing intent she was giving off. Now she's just acting like she did during the First Exam."_ Sasuke thought as he watched her rub her forehead in irritation at the fit her teammate Kiaro was throwing. He now had a huge scroll on his back and three folded up blades connected to a strap on his side, one was sraded, one smooth, and the other looked almost like a sythe blade. Ryokia was standing there motionless as usual with his HUGE sword on his back. Temika had a back pack that seemed to be stuffed and wore a set of black fingerless gloves that had small plates of metal on the knuckles. Her cat was sitting on her shoulder.

Sasuke had turned his head back to Anko to hear the last of her speech. "My last words of

advice to you………. JUST DON'T DIE!!!"

She glanced toward Temika's team and smiled.

"You need to read and sign these forms in order to participate in the exam. They insure that I am not responsible if you end up died." She commented with an evil smirk as she handed the forms to Naruto.

After reading the forms, Team 7 entered the tent where they would receive their scroll. The chunnin looked through a couple of papers, then he handed them an earth scroll.

"I'll keep the scroll." Sasuke stated without giving his teammates a chance to voice their opinions.

As they began to head out Team 13 entered the tent to receive there scroll.

When they where handed a heaven scroll Ryokia turned to his teammates and asked, "Whose going to carry it?" in a bored sort of tone.

"I will." Temika replied as she walked up to him took the scroll and shoved it into her bag.

"Are you sure you'll be able to find it? I mean you have a lot of stuff in there." Kiaro asked.

She turned to him and smiled. "It took me three months to put the proper jutsus on this bag. I'm sure I won't loose it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

All the teams were at there gates when the shot went off to go. Everyone rushed through the gate hoping to get a head start, but one team was doing the exact opposite.

"_Well this was unexpected."_ The chunnin proctor thought as he watched Ryokia, Kiaro, and Temika walk through the gate.

"So we have 5 days to travel 20 kilometers to the tower. What do you think Temika?" Ryokia said.

"We will travel approximately 5 to 7 kilometers per day at our current speed, and at running speed we could reach the tower on less than 30 minutes if Kiaro's at top speed. (Hey!) There are 23 teams in this exam and that means 11 or 12 teams have earth scrolls. We would reach the tower faster if we split up and gathered scrolls. We could reach the tower buy daybreak tomorrow if we take our time and use traveling time affectively." Temika explained.

"Ow head hurts." (Kiaro)

"So, in a simpler form you want us to split up so we can get to the tower faster."

"Yeah."

By then they had reach a well hidden clearing. "We will meet back here at sunset. Pick off the weak teams and try to avoid the rookies, they might present a challenge."

With the toss of a shiriken into the ground to mark their spot Kiaro and Temika sped off.

Ryokia was about to leave as well when Cici jumped on his shoulder. "Fine, you can come with me." He muttered as he took to the trees.

In his path he spotted a team of genin that had had the blood sucked out of them by giant leeches. When he approached he searched their kunai pouches and found a heaven scroll. _"Might as well weed out the weak teams, the leeches all did the work here."_

When he disappeared Team 8 came across the corpses. "Their bodies have been moved." Shino stated in his usual monotone.

"WHAT THE HELL, I'M GOING TO KILL WHAT EVER BASTARD TOOK OUR SCROLL, DAMMIT!!!!" Kiba screamed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, Kiaro was wandering around when he came across two teams. _"Great, a fight!!"_

He continued watching as the scene unfolded. Standing on one side were two boys, one was completely in black with purple markings on his face and a Suna headband attached to a hood with what looked like cat ears that he wore. The second was a small red headed boy with a large gourd on his back, black marking around his eyes, and the kaji for love on his forehead. Obviously Gaara and Kankoro. Not that Kiaro would know. (I know Temari's missing, and I have a plan for that.)

The other group was from Ame and all three wore straw hats and black cloaks with umbrellas on their backs.

The largest one took his umbrella and threw it into the air, when it opened needles began shooting out straight at the Suna nins. In a blur of motion the small boy's sand came up blocking everyone of them.

He brought his sand up to the terrified shinobi and it incased him. It rose into the air he saw the boy mutter something, as he closed his fist and the moment he did, the sand imploded.

Blood rained down on them as more sand began to surround the other two. They're screams were muffled as they suffered the same fate as their peer.

Kiaro was literally shaking in his boots (sandals) as the two sand nins exchanged a few words, failing to notice the sand closing in on him.

"SHIT!!!!!!!!!!" Kiaro screamed as he yanked feet away from the gathering sand. As Gaara looked at him he ran away faster than anyone had ever seen him run before.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Temika sighed as she looked over the team she had just beaten. She twirled a heaven scroll in her hand as she looked at her still conscious opponents. "You know it's really pathetic went you underestimate a girl that is half your size and end up beat."

The three genin from the waterfall village had gotten themselves in quite a predicament. They had run into this kid thinking that they could use her as a hostage if she didn't have a scroll, but now one of them was neck-deep in the ground, the second was hanging upside down form a tree by his feet (no this isn't chakra control) , and the third had had the shit beat out of him.

"_Why did their sensei even let them enter the exam?"_ Temika thought as she walked away. It was nearing time to meet back up. _"I guess I can get something to eat."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ryokia was entering the clearing when he saw Kiaro piling wood for a fire. "I hope you remembered to bring some dinner." He said.

"Yeah!" Kiaro replied holding up a large fish. "Did you?"

"It's crazy how big these snakes get." Ryokia sighed as he dragged a snake as big as him into the clearing. Kiaro was gawking. His fish was scrawny compared to that.

"Where's Temika?" Kiaro asked and as if on cue Temika entered the clearing carrying a HUGE centipede on her shoulder, its tail dragging on the ground.

"Hey, you want some?" she asked, dropping the bug in front of them.

Ryokia paused for a moment and then replied "No," while Kiaro was scrambling away.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was about midnight when Kiaro began to rise. He checked to see whether Temika was asleep or not. When he was satisfied he began to climb the tree where Ryokia was sitting on a branch keeping watch.

"Ryokia?" Kiaro whispered, suddenly a hand slammed him up against the tree by his neck.

"Don't sneak up on me." Ryokia answered as he dropped Kiaro off the side of the branch.

He was back up in a second, sitting Indian style in front of Ryokia.

"What do you want?" the older shinobi asked, a vein throbbing on his head.

"You know our second exam proctor?"

"Why are you whispering?" Ryokia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kiaro's response was his eyes traveling back and forth between Temika and his partner. "Ah."

"So?" Kiaro continued.

"Yes"

"Do you think she's wearing a bra under that coat she wears?"

There was a pause. Kiaro nudged Ryokia with his elbow, "Come on Ryokia, you know you thought about it."

Ryokia tried to look as serious as possible, but a slight blush made its way to his cheeks.

"I fuckin' knew it." Kiaro said with a sly smile.

"Ok, I thought about it." He answered and immediately pushed Kiaro off the branch once again only to have him grab it with his hand and swing back into a sitting position.

"Ok I can see that you don't want to talk about it," Kiaro said cautiously, "So how did you get that heaven scroll?"

"I found it." Ryokia stated obviously annoyed at Kiaro.

"Don't give me that crap, how many did you kill for it?" Kiaro asked. It wasn't like Ryokia to just find a scroll and those lame excuses were only for Temika.

"I'm telling the truth. I found a team that was attacked by leeches and I decided…. what the hell." Ryokia answered. Apparently he wasn't just annoyed that Kiaro wouldn't leave him alone, he hadn't gotten to do what he enjoyed so much.

"Well that couldn't have taken you that long. Did you run into anyone else?" Kiaro asked confused.

"I did run into one person."

"Did you kill him?" Kiaro wondered out loud anxious for an answer.

"It wasn't a him." Ryokia said looking away.

Kiaro's eyes were wide with interest. "Soooooooooo, how it go?" he smirked.

"Nothing really happened. I caught her and she didn't have a scroll." Ryokia sighed as he looked back at his teammate.

Kiaro's smile widened, "You searched her?"

"I searched her pockets and she didn't have it." Once again a vein throbbed on Ryokia's forehead.

"Did you…"

"Kiaro!" Ryokia interrupted him knowing where this was going. "So what happened to you today?"

"Ryokia, I don't think this is going to be as easy as we imagined." Kiaro said, actually acting serious.

"Do we have competition?" Ryokia asked him.

"I found the ninja from Suna, the one that had a tattoo for love on his forehead." Kiaro said knowing that Ryokia had told him about a shinobi that matched his description.

You mean the red-headed midget with the gourd?" Ryokia asked to confirm his suspicion.

"Yeah, I don't know what it is about him, but something's not right." Kiaro explained looking through the small opening in the leaves to make sure that no one was coming.

"How so?"

"The look in his eyes, they hold the killing intent much like yours." He looked towards him again.

There once again was a pause, but this one was much more eerie.

A smile stretched across Ryokia's face. "Excellent, I was beginning to think this exam was going to be a bore."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sun began to shine through the leaves as Temika did her morning stretches.

"Kia-chan, are you awake?" She called up to the tree seeing her brother open his eyes and glace at her.

Kiaro was lying on the ground, asleep, cradling and drooling on his scroll.

Temika walked over to him. "Kiaro?" she whispered softly, leaning over him.

Kiaro began to stroke the scroll muttering, "You're a dirty girl."

Instantly, Temika's eyes were filled with fury and she threw a chakra enhanced punch into his face and grabbed the giant scroll.

He slammed into a tree, "What, what, what I do?!" The impact had obviously woken him up.

Ryokia landed behind Temika, "Stop wasting time, we need to hurry up and find an earth scroll."

"What are you in such a rush for?" Kiaro asked dusting himself off, he was used to Temika's beatings…….as long as she wasn't too angry.

"It's not that I'm in a rush, it's that we only have four days. That may seem like a long time but we don't know how many teams already have both scrolls and have reached the tower." Ryokia explained.

"He does have a point. We should split up to cover more ground, we're stronger than most of the teams here, but don't show many skills. We don't want to make too big of an impression." Temika said, picking Cici up.

Ryokia held out the ear pieces they had used in the first part of the exam, "Once one of us obtains an earth scroll, contact us and we can meet up. If one of us thinks there's a reason that we should all be together, call."

Team 13 all placed the devices in their ears and disappeared.

Little did they know that they were being watched.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiaro landed on the next branch and pushed off. He had a bad feeling for some reason, but traveling with his teammates, who wouldn't get a sixth sense for danger.

Suddenly, as he reached the next branch, a sharp ringing made its way through his ears, making him slip off the branch and his stomach decided to get ahead of him.

"I can't believe I got stuck fighting a weakling like you." Kiaro looked to where the voice in the trees came to see the Oto nin who had caused such a commotion in the first exam.

"Dosu." Kiaro mumbled, trying to get his head together after the sonic attack.

"So, Ryokia told you about me, how flattering." Dosu said with a cocky tone.

Kiaro managed to get to his feet taking his serrated and smooth bladed shiriken from his side. "Yeah, he mentioned you, he told me if you crossed my path," Kiaro said, unfolding the shuriken with a quick sweep of the arms, "not to leave without your head."

Kiaro jumped to the nearest tree limb, dodging one of Dosu's kunai. He threw the smooth shuriken down at Dosu, who quickly jumped out of way.

"Disappointing" Dosu stated. Suddenly, to his surprise, he heard the sharp sound of a shuriken spinning toward him. Dosu believed that Kiaro had thrown the other shuriken, but when he looked behind him he found the same shuriken staring him in the face. "What the hell!" Dosu barely avoided the spinning blades. Again it began to find its way back toward him.

"Amazing isn't it Dosu?" Kiaro said from the trees. _"These shuriken aren't like normal shuriken, they have veins that allow my chakra to flow through them. I can control them simply by shooting a thin stream of chakra from my finger to the shuriken." _He thought with a smirk, "You can run as long as you want, it well never stop following you."

"_You well not make me look like a foul." _ Dosu ran straight toward Kiaro, jumping to the limb of tree, he flipped over him and the shuriken followed. Quickly, Kiaro hooked the other shuriken in the tree and swung around the limb back to his original spot after the shuriken passed, all while keeping the attacking shuriken following Dosu.

"I'm through playing the mouse in this fight." Dosu spun around and blocked the shuriken with the metal insterment on his arm, still it span around and around sending sparks off of the sound shinobi's arm.

"_Why does this thing keep spinning?" _Dosu finally understood. He jumped parallel with the ground just over the smooth shuriken, which grazed his back. _"Damn he nearly made me pay for that one."_ Then the second shuriken turned at raced toward him. "Son of a bitch!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ryokia stopped on a branch and slipped chakra into his ears, as he did so, he closed his eyes. He wasn't going to miss out on any fighting.

As his hearing searched the area, he picked up a low whooshing sound coming toward him. Ryokia's eyes widened as he leaped off the branch only for it to explode.

"Still sharp as ever I see, but your slipping." Said the confident voice of a sound nin residing in the trees.

Ryokia landed on the other tree branch of the next tree just to have it explode after he left its surface. He continued to jump from tree to tree barely avoiding the explosions. Collecting his thoughts, Ryokia began to put his incredible hearing to the test. _"It was been a long time since I've had to do this. Trying to block out and hear sounds at the same time was natural in the past, but now." _Ryokia thought. He started to hear the ring in his ears; gradually he began to hear movement in the distance. "There you are." Ryokia lunged toward the tree where he heard the sounds.

Running around the trunk of the tree, he saw the nin. Ryokia tackled him to the forest floor. After they shuffled to the ground, Ryokia had the shinobi on his belly on the ground and his palms pointed away from him. Ryokia pulled on the sound ninja's arms until he could hear the bones popping out of the sockets. The Oto screamed in agony. Ryokia leaned him against a nearby tree where he began to interrogate him.

"Zaku, it has been a long time since the academy." Ryokia said in a not so friendly tone.

"You're going to die for ripping my arms out of the socket." Zaku said trying to fight the pain in his shoulders. "You haven't learned much since then, have you?"

"Attacking me one on one, Zaku? You couldn't take me by yourself in the past."

"Just following orders Ryokia."

Ryokia began to have a sick feeling in his stomach. "What orders?"

"Why should I tell you?"

His anger began to rise. Ryokia grabbed Zaku's collar and lifted him up to his eye level. "Who gave you the order to attack me?" Ryokia asked in a frustrated tone.

"Its not just you we were sent to kill, Dosu and Kin are going after your teammates." Zaku said, practically trying to get on Ryokia's bad side.

Ryokia had reached his limit; he picked Zaku up and swung him by his shoulders into the tree. You could hear Zaku's back cracking after hitting the tree. Ryokia dropped him to the ground. Zaku cried out in pain, Ryokia stood over him not showing a bit of sympathy.

"Listen," Ryokia said, swatting down so he could see Zaku's face. "you are going to tell me what the hell is going on and who gave you the order, or I well break every bone in your body."

"We were sent by the man that well be responsible for the fall of the Hidden Leaf Village."

Ryokia stomped on Zaku's gut. "OROCHIMARU!!!" Zaku howled.

"So Orochimaru has come to retrieve his apprentice?"

"What makes you think that it's you?" Zaku asked, a maniacal grin spreading across his face.

Ryokia's eyes widened mentally, but he didn't show it on the outside. "Temika, Kiaro, do you read?" he spoke in soft whispers to the hearing device.

He could hear the sound of metal against metal in the back ground. "Yeah, but I'm a little busy here." Kiaro voice said, "Dammit!" he yelled obviously in a fight.

"Temika? Temika! Kiaro is she connected?" Ryokia asked.

"She would have already answered, wouldn't she?" came Kiaro's muffled voice.

At that moment Ryokia's protective older brother genes kicked in, "Why are you after Temika?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, Temika was in the same situation as her partners were before they were attacked. Cici was following her master shortly behind. Her senses were enhanced to track movement, which exactly why she caught the sound of a jingling bell among rustling leaves.

She stopped, turned on her heel, and caught a throwing needle that was headed for her jugular vein. It had a bell attached to the end with a hair-thin wire.

Temika gazed into the trees to see an Oto kinoichi with a smirk on her face, "You've fallen into my genjutsu." She stated, throwing more needles at the raven-haired kiniochi.

Cici hissed at their opponent. "So you think." Temika said, jumping onto the next branch away from the needles. _"I have to get to open ground, so that I can give her a false sense of security. I don't want to use too much chakra right now." _

"_Once she reaches this next clearing I can take care of her and deliver her to Orochimaru."_ Kin thought as the chase went on.

Temika was approaching a clearing and was looking behind her to see how much ground she had covered when she crashed into something…….. Or someone.

She looked up to see all of Team 7, except for Naruto, in a ready tiajutsu stance. Naruto was the one that she crashed into.

Naruto hurriedly scrambled back to his feet. "Why do you always show up?!" He yelled, pointing at her.

At that moment, Temika brought two fingers up and caught two shiriken. "Now Sasuke is that any way to greet a friend?" She said in a sweet voice spinning the projectiles around her finger's joints.

"So where are your teammates?" Sasuke asked, but didn't receive an answer as Temika's head perked up and her cat nudged her leg, meowing like she wanted to leave.

"MOVE!!" Temika ordered, hitting Naruto in the shoulder with her own. He flew into the bushes; Sasuke and Sakura got the picture and followed in suite.

As they turned to see her through their well-hidden spot, she was panting and acting as if she had been running for a while.

"I can't believe that my team said you might be a challenge." The sound ninja ranted as she threw four more needles at Temika, which embedded themselves into her arm and leg joints. A cocky smile graced her face as she watched her prey drop.

"You shouldn't drop your guard." A feminine voice said from behind her as 'Temika' turned into a log.

Temika swung her body around in a skull crushing roundhouse kick that sent the shocked kinoichi flying into a tree. On contact there was a sickening snap as her ribs broke and she fell limply to the ground.

Cici walked over to the enemy's now unconscious body and sniffed it. Team 7 began to approach Temika who was talking into an ear piece. "Kiaro, Kia-chan. Hey!" _"The transmissions from this radio can reach far beyond this training ground. There must be some kind of magnetic field surrounding the area."_

She removed the device from her ear. "Sasuke, can you see a chakra barrier around the area?"

He activated his Sharingan to see a strange chakra surrounding them. He looked back at Temika and his eyes widened. Two different chakras, which were white and black, swirled around the blue chakra within her veins.

"Well?" Temika asked turning to him after stopping Cici from mauling Naruto.

"Yeah."

Cici began to struggle in her arms when a strong blast of wind hit them. Sasuke and Sakura were knocked to different sides of the clearing while Naruto flew off through the trees. Temika was hit full blast into the base of a tree.

As she slammed into the truck, a way-to-pretty-to-be-a-guy grass shinobi walked into the clearing. "Looks like I found you." The ninja said in a snake-like tone.

Temika coughed up a bit of blood and stood with a small trinkle of blood traveling from the corner of her mouth. As she looked at the grass nin she recognized the yellow eyes with slits that Ryokia had described to her. _"Orochimaru." _

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: What did you think? It took us forever we know, but this is a long chapter. I originally planed for this to be longer, but I ran short on time.

Now Ryokia is bringing up a lot of questions and it will be a while until we reveal them, but as you can tell he has a connection to the sound and will be farmilliar with most of the nins from there.

2A/N: How's that for a slice of fried gold.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I hope you liked the last chapter. From here on out it's going to be good.

2nd A/N: We're starting to get into panic mode so understand the seriousness of this situation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Flashback_

_Two young versions of Ryokia and Temika walked to the top of a grassy hill. Beyond the swaying grass you could see a small hole leading to a cavern far below. The sun was high and the sky was clear as Ryokia flopped down on the grass, exhausted from training that day. Temika continued to stand until she turned to the still form of Ryokia._

"_Kia-chan, may I ask you a question?" she asked as she sat down beside him. _

"_What is it?" Ryokia turned his head to her._

"_What is that mark on your neck?" Temika asked. Ryokia's eyes widened, he had the seal well covered under his collar and only sensei knew about it. _

"_There's not much you can hide from me. It has three coma marks, but that's all I can tell. My visions aren't that strong yet and don't have vocals." She said as if reading his mind._

'_Oh yeah, they told her that see could have visions about people's pasts. Great, now I don't just have the genius IQ to worry about.' Ryokia thought annoyed, he sighed. "It's from my sensei." He stated, a cloud began to block out the sun._

"_But sensei would never do that." she looked confused and looked back at the cavern entrance behind them. _

"_It wasn't our sensei. It was the one from the sound." Ryokia replied, shadows shrouded his face, blocking his eyes from view._

"_What was his name?" She asked, turning back to him._

_He clenched his fist, fighting his rage, "Orochimaru."_

_Temika's eyes zoned out for a moment, and saw various images. Many were that of training, rivals, and the experiences of a young silver-haired boy, but others were far too gruesome to watch fully. She was glad that she could only see flashes of them at the moment._

_She shook as she came back to reality, "Orochimaru, he's one of the sanin isn't he?"_

"_Yes, but not as kind as the other two." He responded._

"_You still haven't answered my question, how did you get the mark?"_

"_Well it's not like most curse marks, he didn't write it on me." He began._

_Temika's eyes hardened, "The only other way to mark someone with a curse would be to inject enzymes into the bloodstream." Once again she got a far off look, only to come back and yell, "HE BIT YOU!!!" _

"_What is the point of me telling you this when you can just see it anyway." Ryokia asked in with a vein throbbing in his forehead._

"_Sorry, I can't help it. Besides I can't really tell they don't have vocals," Temika apologized with her palms waving in front of her. "Is that why you hate him so much, for biting you?"_

"_The curse mark didn't bother me. I found it as an act of loyalty between a student and his teacher. It was his interest in my 'gift' that caused me to flee." Ryokia explained closing his eyes. _

"_What do you mean experiments on your 'gift'?" She asked._

"_Yeah, you know that set of eyes that you didn't like?"_

"_Oh, that," she murmured, understanding. Those eyes could bring hell on full force, and she never wished to see them again. _

"_Yes, the Omnigan." He answered, opening his eyes._

"_You used it? Is that why you know all those jutsu?" This sparked her interest._

"_Yeah, and that's how I escaped and that is why the sound village is half of what it was." _

_End Flashback_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You seem scared Temika-chan." The grass nin stated with a smirk. He could see the panic in the kinoichi's eyes.

As Temika heard his comment, her panicked eyes quickly reverted into a cold glare. "What do you want here? I can tell you're far above genin level." Her glare told him everything that she meant.

She knew he was Orochimaru, and she would be damned if she let him get away with hurting one of her loved ones again.

She waved Cici toward Kin telling her silently to move her away.

"Don't be so harsh Temika-chan, you of all people should know why I'm here." The disguised snaked sanin hissed, "But since you're so eager to fight, I guess I can give you a descent warm-up and save you for later."

"_What's going on?" _Sasuke thought. Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching his position.

He whirled around thrusting his hand into his kunai holster to find a bewildered Sakura. "Oh, Sasuke-kun, I found you without getting spotted. Have you seen Naruto?" she spoke softly, gaining control of her breathing.

He was about to answer when a huge crash filled the area. The air off of the impact knocked them on their butts.

Back in the clearing, a fifty-foot-long snake had appeared and struck the spot Temika had been only half a second before. She appeared a moment later on a far tree branch. Once again the snake lunged in her direction. She flipped to the side and once its teeth ripped into the branch she flung two shiriken into the reptile's right eye. The snake began to fret as the injury took its toll. The half-blind snake didn't see an attack coming from it blind side. Temika, with skill that was well rounded from the study of anatomy, sliced open a weak muscle tissue and threw two kunai with explosive tags into the snake's innards. She jumped back in time to escape the explosion that took its life.

"As expected from a child of the legendary Sagumari clan." The 'grass nin' stated. Temika turned to his voice to see him on yet another snake, only this one was twice as big and had steel plates covering its body. "I'll let my pet play with you until my other objective is complete. Good luck Temika-chan."

Once he finished his 'pet' forced her out of the clearing and on the run. Her speed was very impressive for someone her age and rank but even jounin would have trouble getting away from this snake.

Sasuke was about to go help her when he felt a killing intent that chilled he blood and made images of his death flash before his eyes. His gaze turned to Sakura who was frozen stiff from fear.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Orochimaru couldn't have one of us so he takes the other." Ryokia stated.

"Are you kidding, Temika's bloodline is much purer than yours or anyone else's would have ever been or ever will be." Zaku smirked.

"Yes, Temika is the heir of the Sagumari clan, but you don't think that's the only reason Orochimaru is going after her instead of me." He increased the pressure on the sound nin's chest making him cry out in pain.

"Kiaro state your position." He said into the hearing device once again.

Once again Ryokia could hear his fuzzy voice, "Uh….. what?"

"You don't know do you."

"Well I'm kind of lost at the moment. DIE YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!!" Metal clangs could be heard in the background as well as some serious cursing.

"Send up a signal flare or something."

"Well, I don't have any on me at the moment."

"You got any bright ideas?"

There was a pause fallowed by an enthusiastic "I've got it!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back were Kiaro was he was swinging through the trees, dodging multiple attacks from the frustrated Dosu.

"Hold still you little primate!" He yelled running through the canopy. The young leaf nin avoided yet another punch by grabbing the branch overhead and flipping himself upward, sticking to the bottom of another thick branch. _"He can be so close to my sonic attacks and it doesn't affect him. How?"_

Kiaro turned his shiriken back to Dosu and came bolting off the branch to execute his plan.

Dosu avoided the shiriken heading straight into Kiaro's path. The sound genin blocked his punch, but didn't see Kiaro slap an explosive tag on his arm. He twisted his body to kick Dosu across the spine and placed another tag on his chest. Kiaro's kick connected with enough force to make Dosu stumble forward. Kiaro took this as a chance to stick a third tag on his other arm while landing on his feet to the left side of him and put a fourth in place on his back when Dosu swung around landing a punch straight in his face breaking his nose.

Dosu smirked at his opponent, not noticing that he had left a vital opening.

Kiaro clasped his hands together and swung them up, connecting squarely with his chin. The attack caused the Oto shinobi to fly through the canopy. Kiaro smirked as he joined his hands in a single seal, _"Lets see if Ryokia can see this."_ "Kai!"

Suddenly, a huge explosion went off. Kiaro's eyes widened, "I kind of overdid it a little."

"All right, I see you just stay there." Said the raspy voice of Ryokia through the ear piece.

As the transmission cut off Kiaro thought to himself, _"Yeah, with all the teams who saw that explosion, I'll probably be dead by the time he gets here."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, lucky for Orochimaru I have to go save my teammate's ass first." Ryokia stated. He then kicked Zaku on the side flipping him on his stomach.

"You're foolish to think you can stand a chance against Orochimaru-sama." Zaku forced out from his spot now face down on the ground.

Ryokia placed his foot on the genin's head and leaned on his knee, "I guess I'll see you later, Zaku…"

Zaku tried to look up at Ryokia to see what he meant when he finished his sentence. "In HELL." Then he forced his foot down, splattering the contaminants of Zaku's skull on the forest floor. Ryokia raced away from the scene of his old classmate's death without a word.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Temika continued to dodge the snake's strikes as she felt another serge of movement on the forest floor. As the kinoichi moved forward she spotted Naruto fighting off a snake about as big as the one she had fought before.

"Naruto!!" She yelled as the snake was about to swallow him. Temika tackled him out of the way and to her surprise the larger snake followed her and the smaller one dug his fangs into it. The two reptiles began to fight as Temika turned to Naruto.

"Naruto, you need to go help Sasuke and Sakura. The genin that attacked you earlier is far above their level." She informed him keeping a sharp eye on the snakes.

"Nah, you go help them. After all the hero always shows up last." Naruto stated with a fox-like smile.

Temika shot him a glare, "NARUTO THIS IS NOT ONE OF YOUR GENIN MISSIONS. IT'S MUCH BIGGER THAN YOU COULD IMAGINE." She yelled making Naruto shrink back. "Naruto, time is of importance at the moment, and they trust you more than they do me. I'm the only one here that's fast enough to beat two of these things." Temika said cooling off, "But to fight this guy you might have to use the Kyuubi's chakra."

"All right. WAIT HOW DO YOU KNOW….." Naruto was interrupted as both snakes came charging at them. They had obviously worked out there scuffle.

"Go Naruto!!!!" Temika yelled as stood in front of Naruto with a kunai. With that the blonde took off.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ryokia landed where he had seen the explosion go off to see no one. There where signs of a battle in the area, gashes in the trees and blown off branches, but no sign that Kiaro had remained here.

"Screw it; I don't have time for this." He was about to leave when Kiaro came out from behind the trees.

"Hey Ryokia," Kiaro said while zipping up his pants.

"What the hell Kiaro?"

"I had to take a piss. Get off my ass."

"_Yep that's Kiaro."_ Ryokia thought in annoyance. "We don't have time for this. Kiaro, take to the trees, you know that I'm faster on the ground so make sure I don't run into any traps or teams."

Kiaro nodded a bit detached from the situation and took off.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Temika landed the final strike on the smaller snake successfully killing it. Fighting these two was no walk in the park, and she had only killed one so far.

As the corpse crashed to the forest floor, its larger counter part pounced at the kinoichi who dodged the strike and stabbed the snake in the forehead with a kunai, but when the jab connected kunai shattered.

"What the…" Suddenly the snake's tail came around its body and slammed into Temika's side, throwing her into a near by tree with a sickening snap, braking a rib.

As the predator was about to feast on it's prey, it heard a call from its master.

Once the summon left, Temika began to gather her chakra_. "I need to heal this wound quickly; Naruto and Sasuke can't handle Orochimaru on their own."_ Temika thought.

In previous missions, she had often played the role of medic though through experience her and her teammate could stand or heal most injuries on their own. But this bone had been knocked out of place. One of the few times she was needed was in a situation like this where their fast healing rate didn't matter.

She began to get up with slight winces of pain. Once fully up she shifted her weight to a more comfortable position, healed the last scratch, and took off towards Team 7.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"DAMMIT!!!" Naruto screamed, him and Sasuke weren't getting very far with the grass nin.

Naruto charged at the ninja only to be blocked by a snake that thrust itself into the branches.

"_Wait I know that snake…" _Naruto thought. _"It was the one that was chasing Temika._ _Where is she? Did something happen…?"_

As a horrible thought came to his mind, Sasuke threw a hand full of shiriken at the grass shinobi, catching him in the wires connected to them.

As the wires tightened and secured him to a tree the disguised Orochimaru smiled in his mind. _"Your quite clever Sasuke-kun, but I think this should end soon. It won't be long before Temika-chan gets here."_

"Katon: Housenka! (Fire Release: Mythical Fire Flower)" Sasuke yelled as he shot multiple streams of fire towards his opponent. They all hit head on, scorching the body within.

Sasuke smirked as he saw the burnt remains of his attack, but then saw the corpse melt into mud. He began to feel a rumble coming from behind him. As he spun around he saw a snake charging at him with its master on its head. There was no way that he could dodge them.

An orange blur came streaking in front of him blowing dust in his eyes. Once he opened them he saw that Naruto had stopped the snake dead in its tracks.

Naruto looked up at him panting, "You can't fend for yourself, Sasuke-teme?" he stated. Sasuke noticed that his whisker marks were more defined, his hair wilder and more animalistic, his canines had sharpened, and his fingernail became more like claws. But the most notable change was that his eyes had turned blood red and his irises were now slits.

"Naruto…"

The snakes tongue rapped around Naruto and pulled him up to Orochimaru. Naruto was franticly struggling, trying to get free.

The snake used his tongue to lift up Naruto's shirt revealing a seal. "So the Nine-tails is still alive." Orochimaru muttered, "He might cause me trouble in the future. And in that case…."

The snake sanin lifted his hand up and began to make hand signs with the other. A strange purple flame began to form on his finger tips.

"Goguoufuuin! (Five Part Seal)" He yelled as he slammed his hand on Naruto's seal. He cried out in pain on the impact, but soon lost all air in his lungs and passed out.

Then he threw the unconscious boy towards a tree, Sakura noticed that he could die from the fall and she threw a kunai that caught his jacket, pinning him up on the branch.

Sasuke was staring at the man noticing that some of the skin on his face was pealing off to reveal his pale face and the discoloration around his eyes. It made him sick to watch the skin flack off piece by piece.

Orochimaru smiled as he extended his neck until his head was beside Sasuke's. "My name's Orochimaru and I have a special gift for you. Juin Jutsu. (Curse Seal)" With that he sunk his fangs into Sasuke's neck.

"Sasuke-kun!!!!!!!!" Sakura screamed.

Once Orochimaru retracted his teeth he felt an enormous jerk on his body and flew across the terrain smashing into a tree and falling to the forest floor.

As he began to recover, the dust cleared to reveal a very pissed off black-haired kinoichi standing on top of the corpse of a summoning which was hanging over the splitting branch, blood streaming out of its mouth.

"_She killed that snake in one shot!!"_ Sakura thought frantically still shocked that the grass ninja had bitten Sasuke.

Then came a scream. Everyone looked towards the source of the noise, Sasuke. The seal had been set and the torture began. He continued to scream until he passed out from the pain.

As he did so he fell off the branch. Sakura was about to panic when a blur caught him and set Sasuke and Naruto next to her.

That blur was Temika. "Sakura, take these two and run to a safe place." She ordered.

Sakura began to get up only to fall back down again. _"Orochimaru's killer intent must have gotten to her."_ "Alright, you keep these two safe."

Sakura then nodded and Temika turned back to her opponent. She removed a thick, but short rod-like instrument and slid the two pieces apart, revealing two short assassin blades.

"So, it begins." Temika said with a weak smirk.

Temika sprinted to the tree where Orochimaru was perched in blinding speed. She focused her chakra, then the ran straight up the tree swerving pass the limbs of the tree, not letting her eyes wander off of her target. Orocimaru having seen this jumped to the neighboring tree, immediately followed by Temika. As they landed Temika started to hack and slash at Orochimaru's person. He continued to move back and forth, left to right avoiding Temika's attacks. _"Crap, he's faster than I thought, no wonder Sasuke could barely land a hit!" _Temika thought. Orochimaru flipped backwards three times, to get some distance, then leaping onto the tree limb above using his chakra to place himself upside down on the branch. Temika looked up at him in irritation, in awe of the fact that she didn't manage to land a single hit in the sanin.

"You're quite fast Temika-chan, I didn't expect any less from the heiress of the Sagumari." Orochimaru hissed.

"Well, you are definitely a sanin but once I get in the swing of this fight you'll look second rate to me." Temika said in a cocky tone.

"Hmmmmm, you are Ryokia's sister, you both have such a high opinion of yourselves. That's why I hate both of you, and yet you two are my highest objective."

"What are you getting at?" Temika asked, beginning to feel more anger building up inside her.

"Both of you are the last of your kind, also you have remarkable abilities in the ninja arts. But most importantly you both are holding something inside yourselves that I would love to get in touch with. If I could get you two to unlock that power inside, you would be the most dominant force in the world! All I have to do is convince you to join me in my journey, think of it, us working as a unit no one could hope to stop us." Orochimaru explained.

"We would never join you on your little quest for domination." Temika stated in a firm tone.

"You say that now, but what you don't understand is that your brother is already obsessed with the power I gave him in the form of that curse mark. Have you ever wondered why he never has gotten rid of it even though he knows exactly how to remove it from his being?" Orochimaru said, realizing that he was plucking Temika's strings. "He was one of my most interesting students. Always doing what I commanded of him. If he would have stayed, we would have concurred this village by now."

"He escaped after the unforgivable thing you did to him. He will find you and when he does your finished!" Temika yelled, struggling not to let herself continue to fight the battle blind.

"Yes, he does hate my guts but if I can convince you to join me, he will surly join his sister, the only thing in this world he was left." The snake sanin said, he had finally crossed the line.

"Shut up!!!" Temika screamed, she couldn't listen to this anymore. She jumped toward the tree branch and swung her blade as hard as she could. The branch fell just after Orochimaru leaped higher into the canopy. Temika was on a rampage, in med-air Temika flashed right in front of Orochimaru, she delivered a clean axe kick in the back of his head sending him crashing to the forest floor. Orochimaru swiftly side spinned out of the way right before Temika smashed the ground around his previous position with a powerful mule kick.

"_Now we're getting somewhere." _Orochimaru grinned. Temika dashed directly at her opponent, throwing up a cloud of dirt behind her. Orochimaru (damn I hate typing his name!) drew a kunai knife and began to fight knife-to-knives with Temika.

Sakura was watching from a safe distance, having not moved from her previous spot (dumb bitch). _"Wow, she's way faster than Sasuke-kun; even that guy's have trouble keeping up with her." _Sakura thought in awe of the fact that Temika was putting up a better fight than her crush.

Out of nowhere Cici leaped in front of Sakura, put her paws in her lap, and gave her a confused look. It took Sakura a second but she realized what the feline was trying to say. She started to drag Sasuke's limp body toward a hollow root at the bottom of the tree and did the same with Naruto.

Orochimaru and Temika were in a dead-lock of kenjutsu. "Do you see that locked potential I have been talking about?" Orochimaru asked.

Suddenly Temika started to tremble, she stumbled backward then she held herself trying to balance herself. She couldn't move, something was locking up her joints.

"_Is this some sort of genjutsu? No! My chakra wouldn't be fluctuating like this."_

"Hahahahaha, what perfect timing for 'it' to interfere. I know it was going to happen sooner or later," Orochimaru walked toward Temika kunai in hand, "let's help it along, shall we." Orochimaru raised the kunai above his head and it started to come down.

Suddenly a shuriken knocked the weapon from the sanin's hand. "Don't you know never to hit a lady," a voice asked from the shadow of a nearby tree, "guess I'll have to." Kiaro immerged from the shadows.

"So, you must be the third member of Team 13." Orochimaru smirked.

"Hell ya, you must know about me right?" Kiaro asked a smile ear to ear.

"No, I don't know a damn thing about you."

Kiaro's expression flipped. "You'll know me by the time I wear your ass like a size 9 boot (Now you know his shoe size)."

"Kiaro," Temika forced out, "don't take him lightly."

"We can take him no problem."

Temika fell to her knees and began to cough up blood.

"Temika-chan!" Kiaro began to run towards her when Orochimaru flashed in front of him and backhanded him to the dirt. "You bastard." Kiaro groaned as he picked himself up from the forest floor.

"Don't interfere with the ordeal that has befallen this girl (Ha, I made him sound like Shakespeare)."

Kiaro unclipped his rigid blade and seath blade shurikens. He started to swing them like swords; Orochimaru had a little more difficulty blocking them because of their weight. Kairo stuck them into the ground and swung himself parallel to the ground hitting Orochimaru's calves causing him to flip (Like the 619). Orochimaru quickly countered by landing on his hands and flipping back to his feet. "This taijutsu is getting old, lets make things more interesting," He hissed. "**Kanashibari no Jutsu (Body Freeze Skill)!" **

Kiaro was realizing that he was unable to move. "What the hell?" Kiaro was starting to panic.

"Where is Kia-chan?" Temika was beginning to struggle to her feet. There was a pause.

"_Oh shit"_ Kiaro thought.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ryokia had just defeated the third attacking team of ninja. "Kiaro, you suck at this lookout business!" Ryokia yelled in annoyance.

Nothing but silence answered him.

He leaped up in the trees, leaving the team of busted up rain ninja on the forest floor to scan the canopy. _"The little shit left me behind." _Ryokia was on his last straw.

Ryokia jumped off the branch wondering what the hell his teammate was thinking. _"Well, better pick up the pace." _

He was just about to dash off when he stepped on an earth scroll that had rolled out of one of the rain nins pouches. _"It couldn't hurt." _

Ryokia bent down to retrieve the scroll, when he stood back up he felt the worst chakra spike in his life. _"Temika?" _Ryokia placed the scroll into his pouch as he sprinted toward the chakra spike. _"Yes, it has to be. I figured as much, Orochimaru has a tendency for pissing people off to the brink of insanity. Now Temika's demon is beginning to awaken."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Temika and Orochimaru continued to fight in the tree tops. "Kamaitachi no Jutsu! (Slashing Wind Skill)" Temika crossed her arms, and then thrust them apart making a huge gust of wind that started to cut up the surrounding trees. Orochimaru, fortunately, was caught in the middle of it. The gust started to tear at Orochimaru's person, Temika saw that more of his face was starting to flake off.

When the wind stopped, Orochimaru stood up straight revealing his pale, snake-like face. "It's amazing you could pull off a jutsu like that in your current condition." Orochimaru hissed.

"_He's right that took a lot out of me. I have to keep him down until Ryokia can get here. Kiaro is useless at the moment. This is my last shot." _Temika started to flash hand signs but her chakra wasn't responding.

Orochimaru started walking toward her, knowing that her chakra couldn't take anymore jutsu.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Temika yelled in frustration.

"It looks like you're all out of gas." Orochimaru continued to walk toward her.

"What tha…" Temika fell limp on the tree branch. _"Transformation is starting." _Temika started steaming with dark chakra; to bad she couldn't make a hand sign to use any of it.

"Well, as much as I want to see the power of your true demon form. It's time to leave my mark on you." Orochimaru stretched his neck up and out heading straight at Temika.

"Temika-chan get out of the way!!!" Kiaro yelled in desperation, still help in place from the jutsu.

"_It's too late…" _Temika thought as Orochimaru's fangs came closer and closer.

"It's time to join Sasuke-kun on my list of inductees!"

Kiaro fought against the jutsu binding him until he heard the sound of teeth sinking into flesh.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: It took forever, but I thought that was awesome. My co-author did a great job with the fight scenes.

2ndA/N: Happy Holidays!!! & New Year!!! We're now in the story line, for you that are staying with us you'll soon receive the rewards. Please leave us some reviews.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I hope the last chapter was as awesome as we wanted it to be. Here's chapter 6.

2nd A/N: Here we go!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well this is strange." Anko murmured as she rewound the tape to see the Suna team enter once again. "The red-head kid doesn't have a scratch on him."

The shinobi stared in awe at the gennin in the tape. Suddenly Anko felt a chakra spike that made her stumble and fall onto the couch behind her.

"Anko-san!" One of the chunnin turned to Anko in concern.

"Could you feel that?" Anko asked frantically as the chakra spiked again.

The jounin in the room shot their heads up having felt the latest spike. "That chakra is incredibly powerful."

Yet another spike shot up and this time Anko recognized it. _"That's Temika's chakra…. But it's being corrupted. No, I've felt this kind of chakra from her before… on the day she was born. NO WAY SOMEONE IS FORCING HER TO TRANSFORM." _

Anko shot up making everyone jump. "GET SOME SQUADS OF ANBU IMMEDIATELY TO FIND TEAM 13 AND INFORM THE HOKAGE OF THIS."

"But Anko-san what if it's just..."

"NOOOOOWWWW!" She screamed and everyone leaped into action. She ran towards the window of the tower and jumped into a nearby tree. _"Temika-chan please hold on."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Orochimaru's eyes went wide when he saw what he had bitten into. He stared into the eyes of a demon. The white of its eyes was black and surrounded a red-edged iris and inside it pertained a white pupil. It seemed to pull his very being into it.

"**You look surprised….. Orochimaru." **Ryokia said in a voice that seemed different from his own.

Ryokia jerked the bitten arm behind him, Orochimaru started to retreat his stretched neck as his body barreled toward his attacker. As soon as Orochimaru's body caught up to him, he delivered a devastating elbow right in its abdomen. Ryokia heard the air leaving the Sanin's lungs as he releasing his jaws from Ryokia's forearm.

Then, Ryokia threw a powerful right hook, sending Orochimaru flying toward one of the bigger trees surrounding the rapidly widening clearing. The enraged shinobi leaped towards Orochimaru and tackled him through the nearby tree, as it shattered from the impact of the two ninja. The tree came crashing down beside Ryokia who took a posted position over Orochimaru. Ryokia started throwing a barrage of punches. Dirt filled the air as Ryokia went to town on Orochimaru's face.

Ryokia's eyes were filled with intensity as he pumbled on his enemy. **"Tell me Orochimaru, how does it feel knowing that death has caught up with you?"** Ryokia asked not stopping his onslaught. No answer came. Ryokia stopped to look at his victim. What he saw was a disfigured clone made of mud. **"What!?" **Ryokia stood up and looked over the surrounding area.

"You have improved greatly Ryokia," Orochimaru's echoing voice called out, "but I have an old friend who I'm dieing to see."

"**Don't run from me, Orochimaru!!!" **Ryokia yelled.

He reached back to grab his sword, the chain unwrapped itself and bound itself to Ryokia's long wrist band. Ryokia began to throw his sword forwards cutting the trees to ribbons then pulling it back for another throw. This continued for a matter of time until Kiaro was released, no longer being held by Orochimaru's jutsu.

As Ryokia was still cutting down trees, Kiaro went to check on Temika's condition. She was barely conscious and blood was streaming from her mouth. He put his hand underneath her head to support it, and as he did so she opened her eyes.

"Kia-chan…. He's here." Temika stated in a weak voice.

"Yeah, he's throwing a temper tantrum and I'm not going to try and stop him." Kairo stated in a scared/concerned tone.

As Kiaro turned his gaze back to her she began to cough once again, "Temika!" but he was silenced and his eyes widened. Her skin was now several shades darker and the violet eyes he had known so well were now silver with black slits.

"Kiaro, tell Kia-chan to give Team 7 one of our heaven scrolls. Sasuke needs to be treated for his mark and Naruto needs medical attention." She smiled and drifted into unconsciousness.

As Temika blacked out Kiaro looked toward Ryokia, who was destroying a good portion of the trees in the area. "Ryokia, he's gone." But the shinobi continued his rampage. "We need to get Temika to the tower. She needs a medic." Once again he slashed through another tree. Kiaro was beginning to lose his patience, "IF YOU KEEP FUCKING AROUND THEN BY THE TIME WE GET TO THE TOWER IT WILL BE TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!"

Ryokia stopped dead in his tracks. He stood still for a moment taking deep breathes partially for calming down and also for catching his breath. Then he placed the sword on his back and the chain at the end rapped itself across his chest and back to the end of the sword. "Alright, let's get the hell out of here." As he said this his eyes returned to their normal gray.

Ryokia jumped over to the branch where they were perched and gently laid Temika over his shoulder.

Kiaro turned his attention to a bewildered Sakura and leaped toward her. He landed and reached into his pouch withdrawing a heaven scroll which he dropped on the ground in front of her. She hesitantly grabbed the scroll and in the blink of an eye, the trio was gone.

She looked back towards her unconscious teammates with concern. Suddenly, she heard the rustle of bushes and whirled around to see something that would scar anyone for life.

"Sakura-chan, the trail of youth has led me to you once again," said a boy wearing a green spandex jump suit and orange leg warmers (if that's what they call them...2nd author didn't write that). He was sporting a hideous bowl haircut and two caterpillar-like things that happened to be the boy's eyebrows.

After a moment to recover, Sakura found that she was actually happy to have Lee there. "Oh, Lee, could your team help us to the tower." She was nearly expecting him to turn them down, but after a short pause he was more than happy to help.

"Sakura, my beautiful blossom of youth, of course I will help you and your teammates in your youthful journey to the tower." Lee practically yelled.

Sakura didn't understand half the words he said, but it sounded like a yes to her.

With that Rock Lee picked up Sasuke and Naruto and offered to pick up Sakura, but she quickly declined.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The medics rushed passed the remaining members of Team13 with a stretcher in tow. It held a young girl who was in dyer need of healing. Anko glared at them one last time before following the healers.

"You need to tell me **'exactly'** what happened." A slightly busty brunette ordered. She wore a short purple dress with a thick tie around the waist and black leggings with the standard ninja sandals on her feet. She was glaring down on them with demonic eyes.

Kiaro looked like he was about to piss himself. "Uhhhhhh… well you see it's a funny story."

Her eyes didn't let up, instead they grew darker. The look practically screamed **'SPEAK!!!!!'**

Kiaro softly padded Ryokia on the back. "Ryokia, you take over pal." He flew behind his older teammate, trying to escape his impending doom. Cici, who was sitting on the floor next to Ryokia, actually rolled her eyes at his antics.

"Well…." The woman said her voice malevolent.

Ryokia looked at her and gave a thoughtful sigh. "The truth is… on day two of the exam, we had exactly three heaven scrolls and no earth scrolls. We found it would be better if we split up." Ryokia said, keeping under wraps that Temika was the one to come up with the plan. She was in enough trouble as it was.

"Go on…"

"So we split up, about fifteen minutes afterwards, Kiaro was attack by an Oto nin named Dosu," Kiaro had told him everything on the way back. "About ten minutes after that, I was attacked by his teammate, Zaku. I don't know but I'm pretty sure that their female teammate attacked Temika, but I do know that when the attack happened, she ran into Team 7."

"Team 7?" The woman muttered.

"They are a team from Konoha under Hatake Kakashi that consists of Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura. As I was saying, not long after that, Orochimaru attacked them."

"_WHAAATTT!!!!" _Kiaro was outraged, _"You couldn't have come up with something better! Now she gonna have our asses!"_

"After Orochimaru attacked what did you do?" She asked. Her fingers were tapping her crossed arms with impatience.

"I first knew that we where being attacked when I contacted Kiaro after I handled Zaku."

Kiaro peeked over Ryokia's shoulder only to get a hole burnt through his head by the brunette's glare. He retracted by quickly retreating back to his spot on the floor.

Ryokia went on, "I could hear the battle through the earpiece and that was when I was concerned about Temika's safety. I tried to contact her, but something was interfering with the signal. So I knew that she was in some kind of danger. I knew that I'd have to round everyone up. So I asked Kiaro to send up some sort of signal so I would know where to find him. And instead of using a shirken flare he used the enemy (NICE)."

"_Well at least he's making me look good…That move is property of Kiaro Inc." _He thought with a sigh of relief.

As if Ryokia had read his mind he stated, "After I got there it took me a minute to find him and send him ahead to stop any teams from approaching, but he moved on ahead leaving me totally exposed for attacking teams."

A chilling killer intent made its way to Kiaro. He didn't dare to look to see where it came from. _"Thanks Ryokia, you're always looking after me… I HATE YOU, YOU BASTARD!!!!!!!!"_

Completely oblivious to Kiaro's thoughts, Ryokia continued, "When I arrived, I saw that Sasuke had been bitten, Kiaro was frozen in place by Orochimaru's justu, and I barely had time to stop Orochimaru from biting Temika. He escaped afterwards." You could tell that Ryokia was still upset that he couldn't end Orochimaru there when he let out a snarl.

"When you got there was it before or after that you activated the Omnigan?" She asked nonchalantly.

Ryokia was surprised, _"How did she know that the Omnigan became active?"_

"Ryokia I don't know if you noticed, but the color of your eye always becomes duller after you use it." The brunette added warningly.

"I've never noticed that before."

"So what of Team 7?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Naruto was left unconscious as was Sasuke by the attack. Sakura witnessed the battle but it is unharmed. And Sasuke, as you know, was left with the curse seal. I left them at the scene." Ryokia explained. He failed to tell her that they gave them a heaven scroll before leaving. "I take full responsibility for what happened, Yoshimia-sensei."

"You are dismissed." Their young sensei stated trying to digest all of this. This was going to give her a migraine.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TELL SENSEI ABOUT EVERY TIME I SCREWED UP!!?" Kiaro yelled, pacing in front of him. They were sitting inside the door to the tower, waiting to be led to a room. Kiaro's giant scroll was leaning against the bench and Ryokia's sword was stuck in the ground beside him. Cici was lying on the bench, following Kiaro's pacing with her eyes.

"I told her it was my fault." Ryokia said, he was trying to sleep and didn't even bother to look up at his teammate.

"Can't you make something up? I'm tired of Yoshimia-sensei thinking that I just make things worse." Kiaro stated, calming down.

"In a way," Ryokia said, "If you hadn't interfered in the battle when you did Temika probably would have already been bitten."

Kiaro froze and looked at his teammate with suspicion, "Are you serious?"

"Kiaro, this is a three man team. Everyone serves some sort of purpose. And believe it or not, you're more of a help to us than you think." Ryokia stated, opening one eye as he did so.

Suddenly, the door to the outside opened to reveal Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji, Tenten, and Sakura. Lee was carrying Naruto and Neji had Sasuke. As they walked past them Sakura eyed them cautiously as they stood up.

All of a sudden, Ryokia lifted Sasuke off of Neji's back by his collar, "Can I borrow him for a second?" 

"No!!" Sakura stepped toward Ryokia only to be cut off by Kiaro.

"Let the doctor do his job." The gennin gave him a confused look.

"Kiaro give me scroll T7." Ryokia ordered while gazing at the seal intently.

Kiaro, instead of reaching for one of the scrolls on his belt, reached into his back shiriken holster and pulled out a scroll, throwing it back to Ryokia.

Ryokia caught it, unrolled half-way, and began a series of hand signs before slamming his hand on the parchment over the cursed seal on Sasuke's neck. The Uchiha's face scrunched up in pain as he cried out for a second.

"Stop it! You're hurting him!!" Sakura yelled with concern.

Ryokia rolled the scroll back up and looked at her, "It doesn't hurt as much when you don't see it coming. Here." He tossed Sasuke's limp body back to Neji, who barely caught him, and headed back to the bench.

Before Kiaro joined his solemn teammate he looked at them saying, "Free of charge."

"Team 13, we've prepared a room for you and you may see your teammate Temika now." Announced a chunnin who walked into the hall. They both gathered their possessions and went after him, Cici following close behind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As she gently opened her eyes all she saw was white, but her eyes were taking longer than usual to focus. She closed her eyes again; the light was giving her a headache. _"What happened? Did we make it to the tower?" _Suddenly, she heard voices.

"Man, this game sucks."

"It's not the game Ryokia."

Pause…

"I just started playing this, this morning. You would think I would get the hang of it by now?"

"Dude I'm bored out of my mind. That's 14 and 0 for me." You could the sound of wood against wood sliding across the board.

"I wonder when Temika's going to wake up." Ryokia wondered aloud.

"That kind of sucked how Anko yelled at us yesterday about Temika-chan's little episode."

"I really don't see how she can blame us for it." He agreed with a sigh.

"Same here, its not like we called Orochimaru up and scheduled a play date or anything."

Ryokia grunted at that.

"….Ryokia?" Kiaro whispered, "I figured out the answer to Anko's bra question……. She doesn't wear one." In a motion faster than the eye could see, Kiaro hit the concrete wall will astounding force, cracking it.

Ryokia's eyes went wide for a second as Kiaro toppled to the floor before he turned his gaze toward the bed. "I see that your injuries didn't slow you down."

The sight before him could be mistaken as a demon. Temika seethed with rage, her eyes were still silver and slitted and her skin was dark. Black markings that looked like seals where beginning to reveal themselves on her forehead.

"Temika, calm down." Ryokia stated his gaze hardening.

She looked towards him, her eyes turning back to their radiant purple and her skin paling. The seals were beginning to lighten until they became invisible.

Temika sent him a slight smile then turned her head towards Kiaro, her smile growing wide and becoming maniacal. "Kiarooooo….."

As he began to whimper the door swung open to reveal a Chunnin. "Sukaru-san, Zoshimu-san, the participants are being gathered in the tower's arena." He announced as he eyed Kiaro's beaten state.

"Alright." Ryokia murmured standing up. Kiaro scraped himself off the floor and limped towards the door.

Temika made a move to get up when Ryokia put his hand on her shoulder. "Your injures still haven't healed enough for you to compete just yet."

"B-but!" She stuttered only to be silenced by her brother.

"The stress on your body from the incident in the forest is more serious than you think. They are planning to…"

At that moment Anko appeared at the door, "Hurry up, we haven't got all day."

Kiaro, at her presence, snatched his scroll and halled ass down the hallway. Ryokia, however, pulled his sword out of the ground and walked out the door calmly. Anko followed suspiciously.

"See you later." Ryokia's voice called back as the door closed.

Temika sighed and looked at Cici, who was lying at her feet, and picked her up. "I should have hit him harder."

Cici meowed in response.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I thought that they were supposed to have three members." Ino whispered to Shikamaru as she glanced toward Team 13. Similar comments were being exchange between the Chunnin hopefuls. Sakura glanced at them fearfully every so often while Sasuke openly glared at them.

"Ryokia," Kiaro breathed out, "everybody's looking at us."

"Don't pay any attention to them." Ryokia reassured him. His arms were crossed in front him, impatiently waiting (by Ryokia's standards anyway) for the Hokage to finish the explanation.

The gennin turned their attention to the monitor on the top left corner of the front wall to see the first names being selected at random.

As the names were flashing across the screen, Kiaro was ranting in his head. _"Why the hell do they do the little shuffly thingy, I mean pick two fuckin' names and be done with it."_

**Akimichi Choji vs. Shino Aburame **

"Now the rest of you (cough) proceed to the cat walk above the area." Hayate announced.

The teams split and climbed the steps of the cat walk. Kiaro mind was wondering, when he came across an interesting question. "Ryokia, how are YOU going to deal with Temika-chan when she realizes that she was removed from the exams?" He asked, he emphasized that it was Ryokia's job to break the news to her. He wasn't going to do it that's for sure.

"I don't plan to deal with it." Ryokia stated. They stopped by the rail of the cat walk where their sensei had stopped to watch the match unfold.

"What do you mean you DON'T plan too?" Kiaro was puzzled.

Ryokia sighed, "Just shut up and watch the match."

At the moment, Shino was avoiding the rolling ball that was Choji. He let a swarm of bugs fly out his sleeves towards Choji and latch onto him.

Slowly Choji began to slow down until he came to a stop and shrunk back to his normal size. He fell to the ground, unconscious, dizzy, and out of chakra.

"Winner, Shino!" Hayate exclaimed (as loud as he could anyway).

"If that's the best they've got I might as well take a nap." Ryokia pointed out as Choji was carried from the arena on a stretcher.

The names on the screen began to shuffle again as Ryokia leaned against the wall and started to doze off.

"Ryokia," Kiaro voice interrupted, "your up."

Ryokia opened his eyes to see his name on the monitor. The second half of the screen still flashing names while he made his way to the ground floor.

"Come on; quit stalling so I can get this over with." He muttered, annoyed.

Ryokia couldn't believe what the monitor was telling him.

**Sukaru Ryokia vs. Sabaku no Temari **

"You've got to be shitting me?!" Ryokia said, this couldn't have been worse in his current situation.

Temari jumped down from the cat walk, fan ready. "Now you're going to pay for what you did to me in the Forest of Death."

"_This is going to be good." _Kiaro thought to himself smiling manically. This was going to be interesting indeed.

XXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Sorry we haven't updated for a while. I got distracted writing Loophole.

If your wondering why Ryokia didn't get the curse seal when Orochimaru bit him, its because he already has one.

2nd A/N: Yeah she was, thanks for staying with us.


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